Improvement in means for raising sunken vessels



H. F. KNAPP.

Means for Raising Sunken Vessels, &e.

No.l48,7l4, Patentedmarcmnm STATES HENRY F. IINAII, OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

HWPROVEMENT IN MEANS FOR Specification forming part of Letters PatentNo.

RAISING SUNKEN VESSELS, lcc.

December 9, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, HENRY F. KNAPP, of the city, county, and State of NewYork, have invented an Improved Process of Raising or Floating IVrecksand Stranded or Sunken Vessels, of which the following is aspecification This invention, which is alike applicable to deep orshallow water, consists in a novel process of raising or floating wrecksand stranded or sunken vessels by means of what may be termedhydro-pneinnatic jacks, or fullopen-bottom camels, operated as follows:First, said jacks are sunk or deposited, as required, alongside thevessel in any desired proximity to it, with the sharp or narrow edge ofthe full-open bottoms of them resting on the sand or mnd, and then, orafter manholes which are provided for the sinking of the jackshavebeenclosed, the air, or air and water, is exhausted from the jacks. Thiscauses the superincumbent pressureto force the full-openbottom jacksdown deep into the sand or mud, and after the same have been suitablysecured to, or connected by lifting devices with, the vessel, the air iscompressed or forced into the camels, which thus, and independent'ofbuoyancy, act as jacks to raise the vessel, the sand or mud forming thefulcrum or resistancesurface, at least during the early operation of thejacks.

In the accompanying, drawings Figures 1 and 2 represent end views of avessel or wreck with a pair of full-open-bottom camels or jacks appliedthereto, at diiferent stages in their operation, in illustration of myimproved process, and Fig. 3, a view in perspective of one of thecamels, as seen from beneath, in illustration of a certain, though notabsolutely necessary, construction.

A is the vessel or wreck to be raised out of the sand or mud B, thewater C, in the present instance, being represented as very shallow, andthe mud B, in which the vessel is embedded, as much deeper, for thepurpose of more clearly explaining my invention. D are thefull-open-bottom jacks or camels, formed of inverted tanks, with sharpor clear edges to cut their way into the sand or mud, and with upperman-holes and covers E 5 also, with one or more air-suction and blastpipes or conneca tions, G, that are attached by hose or pipe with apump, which may be arranged on another vessel or elsewhere. There may beany number of these jacks D used about or around the vessel, and thesame or a certain number of them be connected, if desired, by a pipe orpipes, H, fitted with a stop-cock, b, whereby a single suction and blastpipe, G, will suffice forltwo or more of the jacks, and by the stop-cockan excess of lifting action ymay be given to one jack over the other,should circumstances require it. Said jacks may be braced internally, asshown in Fig. 3, both to give strength and to provide means, if desired,for attachment of a lifting-chain; but it is preferred to attach thelifting-chains I, where such are used, to the out-side of the jacks, asrepresented. Instead, however, of these liftingchains, which are shownas passing under the vessel, being used, the jacks may be bolted to thesides of the vessel, or bear under brackets secured to the sides of thevessel; or other means for establishing the lift of the jacks on thevessel may be adopted.

llhe process consists in rst exhausting the air, or air and water, fromthe jacks after the latter have been let down to their places, so thatthey are forced down deep into the sand or mud by superincumbentatmospheric pressure, or, in case of deep water, of atmospheric andwater pressure combined, the full-open bottoms ofthe jacks providing forsuch action. After the jacks have been thus embedded in the sand or mud,as represented in Fig. 1, and the requisite attachment of them made tolift on the vessel, air is forced or compressed into the jacks, so as tolift the latter and the vessel along with them out of the mud, asrepresented in Fig. 2, the air acting first against the sand or mud,(with or without a small intervening quantity of water,) which gives asolid or powerful purchase, and not until the jacks are fully out of themud will the pressure of the air act specially, as it were, on the wateronly, and this, if the jacks extend t0 or below the vessels keel7 willnot be Vices in the sand or mnd7 and afterward until the lift is easedby the extraction of the attaching them to the Wreck, and then forcingvessel from the sand or mnd. in air to lift the jacks and vessel towhich What I claim as my invention isthey are attached7 substantially asspecified. The process of raising or floating wrecks I HENRY F KNPI,

and stranded or sunken vessels by means of hydro-pneumaticfull-epen-bottom jacks, Vitnesses: v from which the air, or air andWater7 is first MICHAEL RYAN, exhausted to ei'ect the embedding of saidde- FRED. HAYNES.

